1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to A-pillars and roof side sections primarily for vehicles of the type having sash-less (frameless) doors commonly found in sports cars such as cabriolets and coupes.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent times increased demands have been placed on a number of areas relating to the structure and functionality of doors and windowpanes of motor vehicles. The doors are required to open and shut securely and safely in addition to the doors maintaining a securely seal with the body of the vehicle whilst in a closed position. Further demands are also imposed upon the interaction between the door and windowpane when the windowpane is raised or lowered whilst the vehicle is driven along at normal/high speeds. Car manufacturers have been presented with the problem of providing a seal between a sash-less windowpane of glass and the A-pillar/roof rail of the car body. When a car is driven along at normal driving speed the glass is under a load due to a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the car, which draws the glass out from the body of the car. For a sashtype door the glass load and movement is absorbed by the doorframe structure. If the integrity of the seal between the glass and the car body is damaged or affected, the result is leakage and noise and in order to avoid these undesirable effects, car manufacturers have provided a number of solutions. One such solution is to provide the door seal with a hooking function, which is normally provided by an outer lip. The lip stops the upper edge or contour of the glass pane moving outwards, away from the seal. Due to this hooking load on the seal, it is particularly important to have a secure connection between the lip and the A-pillar/roof section reducing the risk of the lip being pulled out from the pillar.
In one arrangement, the upper glass contour is designed to pass just under the seal hooking lip with an accurate clearance tolerance during opening and closing. Therefore, it is important that the seal support and mounting surfaces have accurate position tolerances. In the last phase of the door shutting procedure, the windowpane is straightened slightly into a more upright position and therefore extends into the recess between the hooking lip and the sealing surface of the weather strip. In another door shutting procedure, the glass pane is raised into the recess by the electric window elevator which raises the glass pane a short distance just after the door has reached a closed position. The glass pane is lowered a corresponding short distance by the electric window elevator in the door opening procedure, allowing the glass to pass just under the hooking lip of the weather strip when the door is opened.
A number of prior art patent specifications have provided apparatus for housing a seal in order to achieve the elimination of leakage and noise, the most relevant of which are discussed below.
In JP 63068422, the features of the invention enable a weather strip to be directly attached to a vehicle without use of a retainer although the abstract discloses a separate pressed part having a separate flange to clamp the seal in place. DE 3738426 discloses a u-shaped connecting profile mountable between a roof skin and a roof frame. The unshaped profile opens toward a car door and houses a seal by using an adhesive or a clamping action. JP 61215175 discloses an apparatus for a roof side structure. The invention uses a number of parts welded together to produce the roof rail section. JP 61215176 also discloses an apparatus for a front pillar. The structure is similar to the structure used in JP 61215175 comprising a number of welded parts to provide the A-pillar. The general problem associated with solutions disclosed in the prior art is the complexity of the overall structure due to a plurality of separate manufactured pieces being fixed together to provide a useful component.